DOLLY, STYLE, AND SCAMS

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that’s me!!

Summer Camp gone wrong: I started reading The God of the Woods, a novel by Liz Woods, literally 48 hours ago. So, I have no review yet other than I want to keep reading. It was recommended to me at the gym, as a book that my trainer and all of her sisters-in-laws devoured…so I’m really looking forward to something super readable!! I took it to Portugal and back, without opening it (LOL, packing books is my version of packing running shoes but never using them, which ftr I do that too!!). Stay tuned for more reading, and more reviewing, but has anyone read this book??



What I’ve been writing: I’ve spent that last nine months ghostwriting for a true inspiration of a human, and her manuscript is getting turned in next week. So I’m doing another full, slow read-through, and tightening up all the details before we get it to the editor. And I’m just feeling really proud of the work this team did together to bring this story to the world. Because it has been true team work (the best things always are!!!).

WOMEN’S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history.

What Art Does to Your Brain. I need to listen to this podcast episode seven more times to truly absorb what I know to be true: art makes us feel better. When I think about sobbing my way through Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 at the Savannah Philharmonic, or having the best night ever with my bestie at the SF Flowers x DeYoung Museum, or feeling in awe at Alice Neel’s exhibit in Port (which I wrote to you about last week!)…Art is healing experience. And in this episode of Hidden Brain, a psychobiologist, Daisy!, comes on to discuss just how true that is + some practical tips for engaging with art and making art.

Sweet book-loving, library supporting Dolly, RIP. Fun fact about Dolly Parton, she loved a paperback!! Paperbacks forever, according to our angel. I, along with the rest of you and her entire fan base, was very unprepared for Dolly Parton’s departure to the realm she was always channeling from. She was a true earth angel. A saint among us. My mom said it best yesterday, “Do you know any other person on the planet so universally loved, from all sides, from everyone?” Sure don’t!! Dolly Parton gave us so much, and in this quick article they rounded up her favorite books. Who wants to do a Dolly Parton book club??

Scam Inc, from the Economist. I dare you to listen to this and not be absolutely horrified. A handful of years ago, I worked on a big book project about confidence fraud: how it happens, how damaging it is to so many lives, how really smart people (and women) get scammed out of entire livelihoods. It’s really scary stuff, and this series from the Economist makes it even scarier. The first few episodes are free, and then you have to subscribe to the economist pods (which I just might have to do to finish, it’s so good!). Early in my career, I collaborated with someone who tried to fraud me out of earned money, but I got it back in full, but other women from my professional group weren’t so lucky. And it was all because she came recommended to us, by someone we trusted. It’s good to listen to these things, especially if you’re naturally trusting, so that you learn what’s out there. Not to change (keep trusting people!!), but just change how you verify they’re to be trusted with your money.

All Your Questions About Personal Style. I want to send this podcast episode to everyone I know, because so many women in my life are trying to figure out their personal style. What looks makes sense? What’s going on with their wardrobes? As life has changed, bodies have changed. Get me talking, and I inevitably start evangelizing my work with stylist and Cosimo shop owner Emily Lacey. Single handedly the best money I’ve spent in the last few years, because now my wardrobe is so tailored down, specific, and I feel good getting dressed. What I learned from Emily was also re-emphasized throughout this episode – Literally yesterday a stranger at my co-working spot shouted out, “Ok style icon” and I LOL’d, hard, because fuck ya I looked cute in my new slacks, a white button down, silver loafers, a metallic bracelet wrapped on the outside of the starched cuff, and my astronaut pin. But it was also like a really simple outfit that I played with, mixing and matching a few things, because Emily taught me how. So if you’re feeling the itch of needing help with your closet 1) message Emily and buy something from her shop!!! 2) Listen to this pod.

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here’s one of mine:
After a year of living in Bali, my friends and family hosted an intervention. Because I smelled. I had taken to “transitioning to natural deodorant” but really that meant B.O. Summer baby, they can all probably still smell it. This was the summer that I learned I’m not a candidate for natural deodorant. It was also a summer that I became pretty committed to a signature scent that isn’t B.O. and led me through trial and error to the best perfume shop in all the land.

So imagine my surprise when, yesterday, I’m at the gym and this very good looking fella walks by and I smell whiffs of one of my favorite scents: black pepper. It’s very specific, something I’ve only smelled in Zielinski and Rozen, a perfume shop (my perfume shop!!) I’ve told you about in the past that I get all of my perfume and curl product from. Zielinski and Rozen is niche, nor is it even available in the US.

Hot man smelling like black pepper? Is this meant to be? Probably not but I did need to practice talking to hot men for no reason. I did a few more goblet squats and decided I would say something to him (ahem, flirt). Luckily between set 2 and set 3 of getting lower than I’d prefer at 10am on a Tuesday, Black Pepper man walked by a few more times. And each time, more pepper. I had no doubt in my mind he was wearing Zielinski and Rozen by this point. I was actually getting excited about talking to this stranger about his perfume journey!!

He had his headphones in. He was doing some hot, half bent over, cable pull thing. So, it’d have to wait. I popped over to the glute extensions, got my weight, and got set up. When I turned around, he was in the corner trying to steal my machine. perfect.
“This is so obscure. But are you wearing Black Pepper? By Zielinski and Rozen?”

He asked me to repeat myself, he didn’t catch it. So we did the whole thing over again.

“No! I’m not. Should I be?”

<he really backed me into a corner here. I either needed to say yes which meant he should smell better. Or say no, and tell him he smells good. Obvious choice.>

“Well, you smell great so def skip it.”

“Nah, I need to look into this. What’d you say it was called again?”

I told him. We laughed. And then I continued with glute extensions. And he flitted away.
After my workout, I headed to my vespa, thinking about the exchange. I don’t know what that man was wearing that smelled so exactly Black Pepper, but alas, apparently notes can be used in many things. As I pulled my sweaty hair out of my top knot, so that I could put my helmet on, I was in a cloud of black pepper.

The person I’d been smelling was me.

Woman on xx